Does anyone have the optional factory fitted DVD sat in the new Mondy?
I'm just about to order one and would appreciate views from anyone who has one at the moment.
I'm particularly keen to know if it has Postcode lookup and TMC service.
Also, is the Bluetooth phone kit any good?
Thanks in anticipation ........
Robert
SLT
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 10/11/2007 at 16:41
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Consider carefully if you need built in sat nav. How much extra is it? remember you *wont* get this back when you sell the car.
I shall save you a thread here for when you come back complaining that the ford dealer wants to charge you 250 quid for a map update.
------
< Ulla>
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 10/11/2007 at 16:41
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Seconded. I could have paid an extra £1500, or £50 a month for three years on the finance, for built in sat nav. It would have been slightly superior in that it would have had gyros and dead reckoning, but on the other hand it messes up the intuitive stereo control, can't be used in other cars and isn't as easy to program.
Think about it. You could get a new top of the line TomTom system four times over the three year period with that cash. It's just not worth it.
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 10/11/2007 at 16:42
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Take it from me (been there and got the way points) not worth the bother/risk of theft/risk of it breaking etc etc....buy a TT with bluetooth and use your money for fine wines. The only person who has any benefit is the next owner.
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I'm at a bit of a loss as where to start my response to the 3 replies to my posting - so here goes - and please bear with me.
Firstly, thanks for your replies. BUT they have not answered my question. I'm not being difficult - just trying to get an answer to my question as opposed to the question which you think I may be asking which is "would you buy factory fitted unit?". I understand the point about residual values - thanks for raising it.
I drive a lot on business (about 50k a year) and have used TT for many years. I now have the opportunity to have a new Mondeo with the factory fitted unit - simple as that.
All I'm trying to do is get experiences from people - NOT to seek opinions which consider it to be value.
So, one again thanks guys - but I'm really asking a different question from the one you have raised.
:))
Robert
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Sorry. You're quite right....I will moderate myself with an apology !
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Phew - thanks for that ........
:))
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I would imagine it is the same unit on the inside as used in the Mondeo MK III - both are DVD based and have a touchscreen for the sat-nav, aircon, stereo, etc.
I cannot answer what they are like but hopefully someone else on here can.
I nearly went for it on the Mondeo 4 years ago but when I worked out how much I'd pay for it and the tax I'd pay on the list price I soon talked myself out of it.
My thoughts:
- I would think TMC works a lot better in the UK than on TomTom because the ClassicFM
signal is weak and so a proper car aerial works better.
- With connections to the car and gyroscopes it will be more accurate. However, latest GPS chipsets now a lot more sensitive that they work through heat reflective windscreen. The new TomTom 920 has some sort of gyroscope in it too.
- Built in satnav probably less likely to be nicked than a GPS unit if left in the car and the windscreen has suction mark or the cradle on view.
- The DVD sat nav unit can play MP3 disks
As for the bluetooth phone system - check it works with your current phone. Not all allow the car kit to access the address book on the phone. And any change to your phone in future could make it useless - these units are already years old. I think a900s has/had it on the S-Max but he was replacing the stereo and therefore will have lost this functionality.
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Robert,
I have an '03 Mondeo with the built in DVD based nav., which I would imagine is not a million miles away from what is installed in the current model. I cannot really answer if it is any good in the new model but given my experience with the previous model, the only thing I would say is, avoid it.
An upgrade to the latest disc is over £200. It is not really that easy to upgrade either. You can't add all the little bits and pieces that you can, say with a Tom Tom unit. Different voices, POI's that kind of stuff.
The main sticking point for me, from a user's point of view is the problems it can cause. The unit in my car was replaced at 18 months old, under warranty of course. I had a devil of a job convincing the dealer it was faulty. It was only when I was lucky enough to manage to capture a picture of the frozen error message screen on my mobile phone that they finally believed me. Don't forget the whole thing becomes a "brain" for the control of various components such as climate control, radio and CD. Many a time I found myself unable to turn down heating or change the radio, etc. It usually resolved itself when I switched the ignition off and back on but you can't do that on the motorway, can you? Another issue was when the GPS sensor failed and it took nearly 3 months to get a replacement.
I was lucky in some respects as I purchased the car almost new and I viewed the nav system as a bonus. But would I buy a new car with it added as an optional extra at £1500? No way.
I purchased a Navman for £140 for my wife and it is pretty good, it is so much easier to upgrade and we have just used it in Spain, where it coped and got us where we needed to go. You can get a TMC module for Navman around £60. So in terms of total cost, the Navman would cost around £200 as opposed to the Ford system's £1500, so no contest there. Sure you have the convenience of not having to take anti-theft precautions but that is a small price to pay.
If I was you, as others have already said, get a portable and use the money elsewhere. I can tell you given my experience of various systems, if I went out today to make a Sat-Nav purchase, I would opt for a Tom Tom with a decent size screen. My mate has one and my daughter had the loan of one a few weeks ago and they are excellent, much better than the Navman unit and way better than the Ford system.
Hope this helps.
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The price of TomTom units seems to have dropped, including the official price.
A TomTom 720 is about £235 from Handtec. When it came out a matter of weeks ago it was officialy £329!
Don't forget the bonus of a portable sat nav unit is you can swap it amongst cars. If you get one with European mapping like the TomTom 720 you can obviously use it in Europe with a hire car - you'd have to take the Mondeo ;-)
In defence of inbuilt sat nav in cars, I know it is possible to update the POI on BMW DVDs by creating a new modified disk. I bet something similar can be done on the Ford - bit more effort than say a portable unit.
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No. Had a built in one once, never again. Faulty twice, grinding away, spinning its CD and parts wearing out even when not in use.
Then it started to go faulty again just out of warranty, i sold the car to avoid the £1,500 replacement cost.
It was great to get a portable *solid state* one for the next car for only one tenth of the cost.
Of course you can program and search for destinations, Hotels, at home in the house, that`s a big plus for me.
Regards
NB, That was 2 years ago. Last week got an update letter from Navteq, the update cost for the built in sat nav UK (only) disk was half the cost of a new portable sat nav. (what a joke:)
Edited by oilrag on 11/11/2007 at 17:27
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If it's the same as the S type Jag and in a similar position avoid. You have to look down to see it. I prefer satnav to be at eye level.
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I test drove Mondeo with in built SatNav. I couldn't find my way home with it. The post code search got me about three streets away so I wouldn't trust it. I think you may be better off saving the cost and buying standalone tomtom, etc. I bought Mondeo without the inbuilt satnav.
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Hi all,
Many thanks for the replies.
Ford have offered to let me have a car with built-in sat nav for a few days to try it out. So, in a week or so I will write my own feedback to my own question!
Funny how things work out isn't it!
Regards .............. Robert
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Good luck. I predict you conclude as we did ;-)
Personal car means you never see a return on £1200 quid. And with your mileage the replacement vehicle will come quickly. But when I got the last Mondeo in 2003 the DVD sat nav was £1750!!!
If it's a company car you pay tax on the sat nav and maybe pay-up for the item to be installed.
It will be interesting to hear experiences though. I currently want the new TomTom 520 or 720 but have TomTom 5 on the mobile and PDA. And the phone is powered by the car kit so for convenience it is okay for adhoc use. The PDA has a bigger screen and does most of what new satnav units do and bought it over 4 years ago and have updated software for nav since. Oh and I woould like the iPod Touch ;-)
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The new Mondy DVD sat nav is £1200 - so that means that it will cost (on a TDci @ 21%) £101 per year for a higher rate tax payer - or about £8.5 per month.
I have TT6 on an O2 Orbit at the moment - but do like the look of the TT520.
So, lets see how good the Ford unit is over the next few days ........
:))
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Don't forget BIK will be 22% next year on this and who knows how it changes after that. Come next April you will pay tax on a small amount more. But you are probably paying towards the extra cost of the sat nav as well. So more than £8.50pm which you never own. And you have TT6 anyway...
Look forward to how it's better than TT6. And the 520/720 TomTom is version 7 with the ability to edit maps.
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Progress so far (after 576 miles) ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
The sat nav is "ok" ......... No better than that .........
Full decision in a few days time - see if you can guess what the outcome will probably be?
:))
Robert
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A friend recently used the sat nav in a 2007 Focus ST (I assume the same unit) to get from Stansted to York. It told him to go down the M11, round the M25, up the M1 then across the A64 to York. It would have saved at least an hour to carry on up the M11 and use the A1 - not sure why it wanted to go the other way but doesn't say much for its route finding abilities!
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I've not used the Ford sat nav unit but if it has options to have a road preference then it might choose the motorway in preference of the A1.
Having said that you plan play with preferences in Autoroute and I cannot get that to choose the route the sat nav did. Older versions of TomTom (like version 2) let you have preferences and mark avoids on the map.
I wonder if that's what happened? Can you set an area as to avoid in the Ford sat nav system?
My guess is Robert will save £1500 and get a TomTom 720 for £235 or.... keep the existing TT6 and have a holiday instead :-)
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Just asked my friend and apparently it was to do with average speed settings on the sat nav. You are able to set the average speeds at which you will drive, and the A1 being an A road had a low default average (an estimate of an average across all A roads whereas in reality the A1 is more like a motorway).
For the return journey he set both A road and Motorway average to be 80, and it chose the right route.
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FYI - I'm just about to write up and submit my experiences of the last week ...
:))
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Dear all,
For the last week I?ve had a new Mondeo (2.5T Ghia Estate) demonstrator with the factory fitted sat-nav and Bluetooth phone kit.
These are my experiences based on that time ? during which I drove almost 1400 miles. They relate primarily to the sat-nav and phone kit ? but I have to say that the car itself is just fantastic. Ok, with a bit of spirited driving I only managed to average 30.5 MPG ? but the official Ford figure is the same so I have no complaints at all. It was also fitted with the sports pack and the suspension setup really suits the car.
To avoid rambling I?ve tried to keep this short, sweet and to the point.
Now, the sat-nav. It works ?ok?, but I will not be ordering one when I order my new car. I?ll be buying myself a new Tom Tom 520. The Ford unit suffers from the following deficiencies - in my opinion as a seasoned user of Tom Tom:
No full postcode lookup ? only allows the first 4 digits to be entered.
Doesn?t display the names of roads that you are driving past.
Only provides plan view, as opposed to birds eye.
Input screen has ABCD keyboard layout rather than QWERTY keyboard.
When used in conjunction with the Bluetooth car kit the interface works well ? but won?t let you scroll through the phone book from the steering wheel ? only the touch screen. This means that your left hand would be off the wheel if you used it whilst driving. The phone kit itself works very well ? however, I understand that it is made by Nokia and not all features will be available with all model phones. With my Nokia 6230i it did everything I would want ? excellent value @ £150.
Interestingly, I had to dial 999. I made the call spoke to the Police and was asked to give my exact position - it wouldn?t let me switch the display back to sat-nav! Grrrr
Now, to be fair to Ford ? there was no manual for the sat-nav with the car ? so some of these issues could perhaps have been avoided. But I doubt it somehow as just how many of us have read the Tom Tom handbook?
So ? Bluetooth car kit ? 9/10
Sat ? Nav ? 4/10
Back to my ?old? Mondeo now ?????..
Regards ????. Robert
merged with the original thread to keep the context
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 21/11/2007 at 20:10
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Many thanks for the feedback :-)
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Get the TomTom 720 because it's only about £25 more on handtec.co.uk's website.
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I have just got a new Moneo with in built Sat nav and it tells me I am at home when I am 4 miles out. This has happened on both occasions I have tried it and from different directions so it is going back to the Ford garage next week
John Hancock
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Interesting as my newly arrived Citroen C5 has an integrated in dash nav screen. I'm no great fan of satnav routing due to many of the odd decisions they make but have appreciated being able to see where I am on rare occasions I've used a portable unit in the car.
Like the Ford the Citroen unit is a little clunky for example only taking the first 4 postcode characters and just having the plan view. It's routing seems as good as others though and the 7" screen is very nice.
Mine sort of came in the deal (the VTR+Nav is getting to be the common company supply trim level) but I would never have paid extra for it... well no more than £200 or so.
The software is on an SD card with the Becker brand. No idea where you get updates or how much.
Edited by M.M on 04/01/2010 at 11:59
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Seeing as this thread has been revived, there are some improvements thanks to later versions of the Ford satnav software. I have a Mk IV Mondeo (57) with the built in kit. The supplied DVD was as described above, but I got a free upgrade to the 2008 DVD for some reason. Most of the shortcomings above are no more. Full postcode lookup, phone list scrolling done by steering wheel buttons (viewed in instrument panel rather than on satnav screen, 3D view now available - and probably other enhancements that I can;t think of.
The traffic info (TMC) is very good, as is it's predicted ETA - often within minutes, even on long journeys! I haven't spotted any quirks in the routing.
This is now a better than average unit, mainly as it is fitted, but I still wouldn't pay for it as an extra.
Edited by smokie on 04/01/2010 at 16:25
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